Dubai set to attract over 500,000 medical tourists by 2020

Dubai has always been trying to provide high end medical facilities to patients. The high quality medical services and professionals have attracted large number medical tourists in 2016. There were over 326,000 health tourists in 2016 and the DHA aims to attract at least 500,000 by 2020. In 2016 alone the medical tourists generated revenue of over AED 1 billion.

The DHA understand that medical tourism in an integral contributor to the GDP of the country and hence continues to advance it medical facilities to attract more tourists. The DHA has created a medical complaints procedure for anyone with a medical related complain about health facilities in Dubai. This has been done to ensure the issues are addressed based on the level of severity, and provide families with a clean timetable for resolution. Moreover, the DHA has issued a charter of patient’s rights and responsibilities to help medical tourists understand their rights prior to their arrival in Dubai looking for better healthcare facilities.

The Dubai International Medical Tourism Forum will be held on February 20-21.

Humaid Al Qutami, chairman and director-general of the Dubai Health Authority, “In line with the vision of our leaders, the DHA is working towards developing a robust medical tourism sector in Dubai. In 2016, Dubai witnessed an overall growth of 9-10 percent in the number of medical and health tourists in Dubai.”

Qutami adds, “The emirate received 326,649 international medical tourists. Revenue generated from international patients was worth over AED1 billion, reinforcing the growing contribution of the sector to the national GDP. Dubai’s attractive location along with the availability of high-quality medical professionals and technology has enabled the city to build a strong and favorable platform to build its medical tourism capabilities. We are constantly working on developing this sector keeping in mind patient’s safety, high-quality health services and excellent patient experience.”
With such diligent efforts by the authorities Dubai is all set to become the hub for medical tourism in the entire Gulf region.